Six Points: Surviving Cleveland Browns Silly Season

NASCAR fans call the period between Homestead and Daytona “silly season.”

A whole lot of nothing happens and only rule changes, racing teams, and rumors are discussed.

NFL fans are now in that parallel universe, where the only news is no news.

Commentators either say a whole lot of nothing or go into hibernation.

Someone woke Six Points up from the long slumber. It’s now time to add to the vast expanse of nothingness before the pads come on later this month.

1. Have Gun, Will Travel:

That was the title of a popular 1960s TV show in an era when the idiot box was dominated by Westerns.

Television wasn’t called a “vast wasteland” for nothing.

Six Points has forgotten stuff while preparing to fly. Underwear, socks, ties, and sometimes even big stuff.

In a rush to make an early flight home to Cleveland after days of getting liquored-up in South Beach, Six Points once had to have some expensive stuff he forgot FedExed back to his office.

No, the expensive stuff Six Points forgot did not require bullets, but only batteries.

Two Browns defensive linemen now face charges of bringing loaded guns into airports. In this post-9/11 climate, most of us are loath to even say the word “firearm” in an airport, much less carry one.

General Manager Tom Heckert has been quoted as having an affinity for “smart, tough, character guys” on his squad.

So much for “smart.”

Shaving cream in your carry-on? Forget it. Shampoo? Buy it at Walgreens wherever you land after picking up your rental car.

No more than four ounces of liquid? Got it. I’m with the program.

But no one said anything about a loaded pistol!

Cue the Wizard of Oz soundtrack: “If I Only Had a Brain.”

2. Danso With The Stars:

When Six Points started following NASCAR around seven years ago, a longtime fan said, “You gotta pick a driver.”

For the record, Six Points selected Ryan Newman, based on the “one of us” factor. No redneck, Newman has a mechanical engineering degree from Purdue and is a son of Big Ten country. Good enough.

In NFL Silly Season, Six Points likes to pick a rookie. No first-round picks here, and no Notre Dame quarterbacks.

Kwaku Danso does not fit the “one of us” criteria by any means, but this undrafted free agent comes with a great story line.

A 28-year-old native of Ghana who graduated from East Carolina University with a degree in construction engineering, Danso stands 6-foot-5 and weighs in at 336 pounds.

His college football career consisted of appearing in an entire three games in “garbage time” for the Pirates, and he worked his way through college, finally getting his degree from the third university he attended.

Yes, Six Points likes longshots.

But Danso’s background virtually screams “smart, tough, character.”

And Danso may not be as much of a longshot as his lack of experience would indicate.

Take your average defensive lineman who played four years in college. He goes to the NFL at age 22 or so, with the impact from playing four previous years in high school already having taken its toll on his body.

Just like going to college and having to “unlearn” a lot of the crap you were fed in high school history class, your average NFL player had to “unlearn” high school techniques when he got to BCS-level play, and will have to “unlearn” BCS techniques when he reaches the NFL.

Danso comes in six years older, but with much less wear on his body. He also will not have to “unlearn” anything.

In terms of a learning curve, Six Points has to cite Danso’s engineering degree. Pass-rushing schemes are an intellectual piece of cake compared to advanced calculus.

Browns defensive coordinator Rob Ryan took a look at Danso during East Carolina’s Pro day and said, “Who is this guy?”

Imagine a Parma extending over a land mass about the size of Cuyahoga County and you pretty much have Virginia Beach.

A few years back, the city whose population is now greater than 400,000 decided it needed a “downtown,” so it built one from scratch.

Miles inland from the Atlantic Avenue resort area, Virginia Beach built Town Center, an ersatz downtown featuring office buildings, condos, hotels, and just about every chain restaurant known to humankind.

Even though Town Center boasts the tallest building in the Commonwealth of Virginia, its credibility as a “real” downtown was dubious.

For instant credibility, enter Michael Vick’s birthday party. We’ve all seen the story.

One of Vick’s former running mates from his nearby hometown of Newport News, a convicted felon from the Bad Newz Kennels case and therefore persona non grata under the terms of Vick’s parole, was shot outside a Town Center nightclub after Vick’s birthday party.